


The old debate; did Gene Rodenberry purposefully make Spirk a 'Thing'???

by KSForever



Category: Star Trek: The Original Series
Genre: An article inspired by the included post, M/M, The old debate; did Gene Rodenberry purposefully make Spirk a 'Thing'???, the article is mine - the post - a tumblr one - is not mine -
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-28
Updated: 2017-10-28
Packaged: 2019-01-25 08:02:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,440
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12526728
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KSForever/pseuds/KSForever
Summary: This is an article - an 'essay' - which includes the post by Tumblr's looloogirl - the post included at the top inspired the subsequent article by meThe old debate; did Gene Rodenberry purposefully make Spirk a 'Thing'???





	The old debate; did Gene Rodenberry purposefully make Spirk a 'Thing'???

I had an idea to write an article, of sorts. I don't think this is the first time I've written one of my 'Ramblings' on this subject. Warning: I do swear in it, at one point!

Article Based around a post by looloogirl; 

the post is included in my article: Article written by me,  
thylaksahayaashayam/Vulcan Lover/KSForever/MrsTrekkieH_H ...

Summary: 

The old debate; did Gene Rodenberry purposefully make Spirk a 'Thing'???

Did Gene Rodenberry purposefully make Spirk a ‘thing’ ?

 

looloogirl wrote this post (below) – which I found on Tumblr:  
Gene Roddenberry:  
o described Kirk and Spock’s relationship with the words “deep love"  
o invented the word t’hy’la to describe Kirk and Spock’s relationship  
o had Kirk risk his life, career, and crew to save Spock’s life (on multiple occasions), and explicitly made Kirk state that those risks were the very definition of love  
o had Spock let his emotions shine through for Kirk way more than anybody else in the entire series and movies  
o had Kirk and Spock unnecessarily touch many times during the series despite vulcan sensitivity  
o put in MANY LINES that, if exchanged between Kirk and a woman, would be almost universally interpreted as evidence of romantic or even sexual attraction  
o compared Kirk and Spock to Alexander the Great and Hephastion (who were lovers)  
o chose sci-fi writers to aid him in production that were known for inserting homoerotic subtext into their works  
o was king of displaying extremely controversial content into his works that were way ahead of the times  


and you’re telling me that it’s absurd to assume that Kirk and Spock were lovers

So, then, I wrote this reply, and have since added to it to make what is this article:

thylaksashayaashayam (that's my name on Tumblr!)

I LOVE the above post, and agree with it whole-heartedly. The stumbling block is Kirk’s speech to a reporter (named Rodenberry) in a book written by Rodenberry himself; the TMP novelisation. 

Now, I KNOW that that speech (of Kirk’s, in the book) can be ‘got around’ by fan fic writers, and I KNOW that Gene Rodenberry couldn’t very well have Kirk say, openly; ‘Yes, you’re right. I’m head over heels in love with Spock, and I think about fucking him ALL the ruddy time!’… So… Does this one bit of deflection or assuring a stranger, null and void other evidence that Gene R. might have made Spirk Gay on purpose? 

Well, there’s an argument that says ‘Hell, yes; You obsessed idiot!’ (meaning me, and people like me, who practically live for Spirk’s Gayness!), and, another argument that says ‘Straight Spirk Theorists; don’t you be quite so hasty to mock us.’

It’s not just because some of us are LGBTQ and we want heroes like us, and can relate to these characters 'with our Gay glasses on’ that we might have a point about Spirk being a ‘thing’ in the sense of canon; 

The quote Kirk gives to the press in TMP (the novel); It can, quite reasonably, and character-feasibly be set out, and explained away, not unreasonably, like this:

There is a valid argument that supports that Kirk, in character-typical bluster, is in denial about his feelings for Spock - and, that, when Spock, later, (during the mission just before the start of which Jim talks to the reporter, and says what he undeniably says) holds Jim’s hand in the Sickbay; Jim is confronted by his feelings for Spock. Yeah, okay, given Jim’s words to the reporter, and the fact that "this -simple feeling" could be the intonation/speech pattern that was, instead, intended; the fact that we can’t refute that Rodenberry wrote lines where Jim says that he does not harbour sexual attraction to Spock, kind of blows the slash stuff out of the water, and makes it look like we’re all just looking for something to validate how we feel about the Spirk Bond; I’ll admit that...

... BUT, there’s also, a heck of a lot of Rodenberry given hints that the Gay Believers, are actually standing on very solid ground/foundations; and then, the idea that Kirk’s sexuality seems quite Pansexual throughout his life -femmes are loved by him, but he can be known to use sex with a new someone to improve his, his ship’s, and, his crew’s chances of survival; There’s a difference between when he really falls in love, privately, and when he just uses his attraction to females, or indulges in it casually.

Back to bringing Gene Rodenberry’s intentions into this discussion: there are as many, if not more, instances of Gene hinting that he might have orchestrated things in a Gay light on purpose, as there are, or, than there are; of him apparently scoffing at the idea. 

Even if it was all just one big happy coincidence of writing something that could be construed as Gay, but not writing it that way for the reasons we hope, still, that he, and his staff, did; Gene did, at least, stand by the idea that the Gay Love Theory could be the case; OK, so, some of Spock’s lines, for instance, were given to him, a male, because, if Kirk had shown this level of loyalty and care to a woman; then, to be realistic, he and the woman would have had to be shown as being in a relationship – And, with 1960s sensor-ship, they thought it best not to show anything as intensely sexual as that on TV.

A weekly flirtation with a guest character was deemed lighter, and more acceptable to audiences, than anything long-term, and, therefore, almost inherently sexual, being shown on the nation’s TV sets week after week. Between a man and a woman, the heat of talking so devotedly and romantically would only have to escalate to things like bedroom scenes. So, if the person Kirk went to confide in and rely upon, was male; sex didn’t have to enter in to the equation! Of course, it might be, quite compellingly argued that this was exactly how Gene Rodenberry might have decided, quite consciously, to slip a Gay Relationship under the top bar that is Sensor-ship, and the Sensors themselves. Put together two men; have it that they say all this undying love stuff to each other, but they won’t frighten the non-liberals, because the writers can always feign their own kind of ignorance – and, people can go back to believing that it’s the intensity of comrade-ship and its strong sense of the family unit shared by comrades, that has those male characters speaking in that way. 

Spock, bless him, is perfect for being gay on TV without offending anyone – because he doesn’t talk loudly of sweet and sexy love; but, real fans know that Vulcans DO have emotions; they’re just discreet about whom they share them with – Again, perfect for the old-fashioned notion ‘I don’t mind what goes on behind closed doors, as long as I don’t have to be out-rightly told about it every five minutes!'. This opinion is still held to steadfastly, by so many, but, in itself, was a way of being quietly liberal, or not so loudly bigoted, in the 1960s. 

A Gay couple, including a quietly emotional Vulcan, could be said to fit the call for a frisson of romance and commitment on screen, that couldn’t be seen to be too sexual! But, hey, I’m rambling, and theorizing on; getting away, it might be said, from the thread of the argument. 

The thing is, Gene Rodenberry, this revolutionary man; He was, at least, brave enough to be a gay-ally of sorts, and say that he’s quite alright with people thinking that of Spirk. He might have been doing it because he didn’t want to lose popularity among a big contingent of Star Trek fans, BUT I think it more likely that, if he was concerned with losing popularity with anyone, it would have been concern for losing fans and friends, and money, among the ‘conservative’ sector of Hollywood, and society in general.

… And, just for the record, I don’t think I’m entirely clutching at straws in this article. It isn’t just down to my ‘Gay Agenda’ that I say; Spirk IS, indeed, a THING!!!. I think that’s a fair enough, and, quite realistically, a valid enough, thing for me to say!

The Tumblr post that inspired this, which is not my first collected ramblings on the subject of is Kirk/Spock, canon; was the Gay slant intentional?’ is by ‘looloogirl’ (a Tumblr username/a blogger from Tumblr.

This ‘article’, built around that post by ‘looloogirl’ is my own work.

Bethany Heard-Hubbard; known as thylaksashayashayam on Tumblr.

28.10.17


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